Fetish for full body 'zentai' suits emerges in Japan

TOKYO -- By day, she is a mild-mannered office clerk, whose modest make-up and conservative hairstyle make her blend in to any crowd.

By night, she dresses in a skin-tight, all-in-one Spandex body suit that covers everything — including her eyes — and sits in bars, alone but liberated, she believes, from the judgment of others.

"With my face covered, I cannot eat or drink like other customers," said the woman, who is in her 20s and says her name is Hokkyoku Nigo (North Pole No. 2).

"I have led my life always worrying about what other people think of me. They say I look cute, gentle, childish or naive," she said, her lips ruffling the tight, red shiny material.

"I always felt suffocated by that. But wearing this, I am just a person in a full body suit."

Hokkyoku Nigo is part of a small subset in Japan with a fetish for wearing outfits called "zentai" — an abbreviation of "zenshintaitsu," which means "full body suit" — who say they are seeking liberation by effacing the physical self.

Some meet through Internet forums and through gatherings like the Tokyo Zentai Club, whose 10 members get together every other month, just like any other group, to hold barbecues or parties. Unlike any other group, they are covered head-to-toe in skintight Lycra.

"I was always fascinated by hero costumes as a child," said member Hanaka, 22, who was introduced to the club by her 25-year-old boyfriend, Popo.

"When I was 13 or 14, I even tried to make a full-body suit myself, sewing stockings together. But I stopped, thinking maybe I was doing something weird.

"I was really happy when I finally found out on the Internet that there were people like me out there," said Hanaka, who always comes to Tokyo Zentai Club events with Popo.

Absolute utter rubbish. This has NOTHING to do with feeling "free" and "liberated" from onlooker's judgments about the self or the body.

This has EVERYTHING to do with being a filthy sex pervert and parading around in public anonymously. I find them embarrassing and disgusting to look at and certainly wouldn't want children having to be subjected to, what amounts to a sexual fetish costume, on their way to school or the shops. That is an abhorrent thing to know it could happen. A person dressed in a stupid "kinky" sexualized Nazi uniform or dominatrix costume would be arrested on the street for having the audacity to try and shock and offend members of the public. Why aren't these people also arrested? The costume may cover the body, but it leaves so little left to the imagination, with bulges all over the place, they may as well be NAKED.

Despicable and sickening people. What is wrong in modern Japanese society, that allows perverts to flaunt their sordid fetishes upon us all?

Once again, Japan should feel ashamed of itself, for shunning its beautiful history in favor of a downward spiral of perversion and futuristic destruction of its society.

whooooh....what planet are you on?The words filthy sex and pervert together are clear indications that this disturbed you on a rather profound levelPerhaps you should investigate further your rabid response to others choices...."as it hurt no other, do what ye will".

cariom1999@ wrote:" say they are seeking liberation by effacing the physical self."

Absolute utter rubbish. This has NOTHING to do with feeling "free" and "liberated" from onlooker's judgments about the self or the body.

This has EVERYTHING to do with being a filthy sex pervert and parading around in public anonymously. I find them embarrassing and disgusting to look at and certainly wouldn't want children having to be subjected to, what amounts to a sexual fetish costume, on their way to school or the shops. That is an abhorrent thing to know it could happen. A person dressed in a stupid "kinky" sexualized Nazi uniform or dominatrix costume would be arrested on the street for having the audacity to try and shock and offend members of the public. Why aren't these people also arrested? The costume may cover the body, but it leaves so little left to the imagination, with bulges all over the place, they may as well be NAKED.

Despicable and sickening people. What is wrong in modern Japanese society, that allows perverts to flaunt their sordid fetishes upon us all?

Once again, Japan should feel ashamed of itself, for shunning its beautiful history in favor of a downward spiral of perversion and futuristic destruction of its society.

What an amazing tirade of trash cariom1999 talks. Pure ignorance guided by their own perversions. It was China who has given us the style of clothes we wear today: buttons, collars, front fastening, 2 part overlapping at the waist using natural materials or their synthetic equivalent. The west just modifies the basics and calls it fashion, accentuating certain body dimensions over some others. Someone (in Japan) has thought "outside the box" has used modern materials to accentuate the whole body form removing the element of skin tone or color.

So how interesting that the "pervert within", should think otherwise.

Embrace the art form - its advanced technology and art in one. And a significant move on from body painting and (abhorrent) permanent tattoos.